Lobbyists: “West Virginians Are Heavier, Can Handle More Pollutants”

The West Virginia Manufacturers Association (WVMA) who throw massive money into state elections – in order to curry the favor of politicians – don’t appear to think much of the people of West Virginia.

In a recent statement regarding the fight to lower water safety standards, they had this to say about a specific Obama era Department of Environmental Protection ruling:

“They argue that the EPA encourages states to incorporate state-specific science, and that because West Virginians are heavier, their bodies can handle more pollutants, and that because they drink less water, they are less exposed to the pollutants.”

This problem has plagued the government at every level for decades: big business tries to get in bed with big government. Big manufacturing lobbyists during the Obama Administration got together with the EPA to develop regulations that would allow businesses to pump more pollutants into water sources than the previous administration.

Because of that, the WVMA got mad because the federal government made wanted to make changes that went opposite of their own standards, which they published another response:

“Changing one of the factors changes the ultimate criterion. For example, the calculated criteria could be higher in states where the amount of water people drink less than the national average that the EPA used in developing default criteria. In the case of the WVMA work, experts are not looking at body weight or water consumption, but are evaluating several other factors, primarily trophic levels of fish consumed in West Virginia and confirming that the cancer slope factors and relative source contributions are consistent throughout West Virginia’s environmental programs.”

The WVMA agreed that the people of West Virginia are of wider girth perhaps, but they don’t want to have to incorporate that into their research regarding state water carcinogen levels. Whether you are environmentally conscious or not, I think it is safe to assume that none of these people should be saying what level of carcinogen level is safe.

This is less of an environmental problem and more of a crony capitalism issue in which powerful special interests want to decide how much cancer-causing pollutants are safe enough for you to drink.